Dear Audience,
For better understanding of the spiritual message behind this homily I kindly remind
you to first read and contemplate the biblical texts before reading or listening to my
preaching - a human reflection on the Word of God!

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading

A reading from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel (2:2-5)

As the Lord spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my
feet, and I heard the one who was speaking say to me: "Son of man, I am sending you
to the Israelites, rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors
have revolted against me to this very day. Hard of face and obstinate of heart are
they to whom I am sending you. But you shall say to them: "Thus says the Lord God!"
And whether they heed or resist - for they are a rebellious house - they shall know
that a prophet has been among them."

(P) The word of the Lord.(R) Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalms of David (123:1-2, 2, 3-4)

(R) Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for His
mercy.

To you I lift up my eyes who are enthroned in heaven - as the eyes
of servants are on the hands of their masters.
(R)

As the eyes of maid are on the hands of her mistress, so are our
eyes on the Lord, our God, till He has pity on us.
(R)

Have pity on us, O Lord, have pity on us, for we are more than
sated with contempt; our souls are more than sated with the mockery of the
arrogant, with the contempt of the proud.
(R)

Second Reading

A reading from the Second Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians
(12:7-10)

Brothers and sisters: That I, Paul, might not become too elated,
because of the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to
me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.

Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me,
but He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in
weakness." I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the
power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses,
insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for
when I am weak, then I am strong.

(P) The word of the Lord.(R) Thanks be to God.

Gospel

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (6:1-6)

Jesus departed from there and came to his native place,
accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came he began to teach in the
synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, "Where did this man
get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are
wrought by his hands? Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother
of James and Jones and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?"
And they took offense at him.

Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in
his native place and among his own kin and in his own house." So he was not able
to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying
his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

(P) The Gospel of the Lord.(R) Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily

Today's gospel is an uninterrupted continuation of last week's
gospel. It begins with saying "Jesus departed from there and came to his native
place, accompanied by his disciples", Mark (6:1). The word "there" in the verse
refers to Capernaum. According to all four of the gospel narratives - Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John - Capernaum was the home of five disciples - John, James, Simon, Andrew
and Matthew - and the temporary home of Jesus during His public ministry. It overlooks
the Sea of Galilee, near to the place where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus taught and performed many healing miracles at Capernaum.

In last week's gospel, we read two such accounts - the healing of
the unnamed woman suffering from haemorrhage and the raising to life of a young girl
who we learned was feared dead. The girl was the daughter of Jairus, a leader in the
synagogue at Capernaum, Mark (5:21-43). In addition to these two miracles, and as
mentioned in the earlier chapters, Mark also reports of Jesus driving out an evil
spirit from a possessed man in Capernaum, Mark (1:21-28); the curing of Simon's
mother-in-law who was ill with a high fever, Mark (1:29-31); the healing of a man
with leprosy, Mark (1:42-45) and of a paralytic, Mark (2:1-12); the casting out of
the demons from the demoniac among the tombs, Mark (5:1-20) etc.

In today's gospel, we read that Jesus went from there to His native
place, Nazareth, which is about 30 kilometres away. During his stay in Nazareth,
and on the Sabbath day, Jesus went to the synagogue. A synagogue was an important
place for the Jews in the time of Jesus. It was a place where Jews gathered for
worship and for study of the Scriptures. Any synagogue service includes:

the recitation of the "Shema"
in Hebrew meaning "to hear", or "to listen", a liturgical prayer taken from three
scriptural passages Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Deuteronomy 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41
and which expresses the Jewish people's faith in and love of God;

the reading of a portion of the
Torah (Law), that is, the first 5 books of the Bible;

the reading of excerpts from
the writings of the Prophets and;

a sermon explaining the Scripture,
Acts (13:15);

The custom was that an elder of the congregation or a rabbi
would be invited to read a scriptural text and interpret it for others. This
was the case with Jesus' synagogue appearance in Nazareth. Jesus was already
being called a "Rabbi" by his disciples, John (1:38; 1:49; 3:26). But when Jesus
spoke, many people were astonished. However, Mark does not mention what Jesus
spoke about. He only records that the people asked, "Where did this man get
all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought
by his hand?" No doubt, some of you might wonder what Jesus said or did that
astonished the listeners.

In the parallel account we read what Jesus had taught on that
day, Luke (4:14-29). As Jesus attended the service, He was given the scroll of
the Prophet Isaiah (61). Having unrolled the scroll, He read, "The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me, to bring good news to the poor; to
proclaim liberty to captives; and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed;
and to announce the Lord's year of mercy", Luke (18-19). Jesus then gave
the scroll back to the attendant and said, "Today, these prophetic words come
true as you listen", Luke (21).

This was a startling statement for Jesus to make. It is as if Jesus
was saying, "I am the person here spoken of and, at this present time, the Spirit
of God is upon me and has anointed me to preach glad tidings to you and all the good
things mentioned in the Scripture". According to Luke's account, the people
were astonished by how well Jesus spoke. They praised Jesus's words of wisdom and
the mighty works of miracles that were coming through him.

What miracles were they amazed about? In fact, no miracles took
place on this particular day in Nazareth. They had probably heard of the miracles
that occurred in Capernaum and around the Sea of Galilee. However, they were
furious at Jesus' claim to be the Messiah about whom Isaiah had prophesied.
Besides, when Jesus preached, He did so "as one who had authority, not as the
Scribes or teachers of the law", Mark (1:22). In other words, the people of Nazareth
may have acknowledged that the words quoted from the prophet Isaiah were spoken of
the Messiah but, they would not believe that Jesus had any credentials to prove
that He was the Messiah. And they found Jesus' claim scandalous because Jesus was
not distinguished in riches, learning, rank or power. They were expecting the Messiah
to come with pomp and ceremony as would a great king and deliver Israel from the
Romans' slavery.

Jesus came to Nazareth proclaiming a message of salvation and
showing acts of mercy but the people altogether wrangled on points so trivial and
unessential. They referred to Jesus as "the carpenter, the son of Mary and
the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon", Mark (6:3). Remember,
the people in his hometown were his family, friends and neighbours. "Too much
familiarity breeds contempt", as the saying goes. Perhaps, the people of Nazareth
were just too familiar with Jesus and they took offense at Jesus' humble birth.
They made the indigent circumstances of Jesus' family the reason why they would
not receive him as a prophet and the Messiah, although they were amazed at his
wisdom and at his miracles. They were too proud to be taught by one of their
own whom they took to be their equal or an inferior. They saw Jesus only as the
carpenter, not the Messiah. They could not accept that someone who was born of
a modest household was worthy to be so highly educated in the scriptures.

Jesus, knowing their hearts were not open to the testimony of
the scriptures, said to them, "A prophet is not without honour except in
his native place and among his own kin and in his own house". He was not
upset that his own town rejected Him because this was the first of what would
be the many rejections during His earthly ministry. As a matter of fact, Mark
writes that when Jesus began His ministry and his relatives heard about it,
they accused Him of having gone mad: acting on that belief, they tried to
take charge of Him as if He did not know what He was doing, Mark (3:21).

When Jesus said that the only place people do not honour a
prophet is in his home town, he obviously pointed to their prolonged experience
of unbelief and indifference to God, to His message and to His servants, the
prophets, as sent by God to call Israel to repentance and renewal of their
covenant with God, 2 Kings (17:13); Jeremiah (7:25; 26:5). As a result of
their rejection, Jesus was not able to perform any mighty miracles among them
except to heal a few sick people by placing his hands on them. Jesus "was not
able to work any mighty miracles" does not mean a restriction on His power,
Mark (6:5). It was just that their unbelief kept Jesus from doing all that He
could. At the gospel's closing, Mark writes that Jesus was "amazed at their
lack of faith."

The gospels tell us that the people were constantly astonished
and amazed at Jesus' teaching and works. However, there are only two recorded
instances of Jesus being amazed. One case was in Capernaum. According to the
gospel accounts of a Roman centurion came to Jesus and implored Him on behalf
of one of his servants who was ill, Luke (7:1-10); Matthew (8:5-13). When Jesus
offered to go to the centurion's house to perform the healing, the centurion
told Jesus that he felt unworthy to receive Him under his roof or come into
his home and that, if he just spoke the word of healing, his servant would get
well. On hearing these words, Jesus was amazed and said to those following Him,
"I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith",
Luke (7:9).

Today, we are using the words of the centurion, when we prepare
to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Mass. The other occasion was
in his hometown, Nazareth, as we read today: Jesus was filled with wonder at the
total lack of faith in Him among His fellow Jews, who had been waiting for the
Messiah. The non-Jew centurion's faith stood in contrast to the lack of faith
of the Jews.

What is the message for us?

Jesus is not physically present with us today. Nonetheless, His
representatives such as our Pope, bishops, priests, ministers, monks, nuns and
lay preachers are here: through them, Christ continues to spread His message of
salvation. They are the modern-day prophets and messengers of God. But, we often
reject God and His Word and His purposes for ourselves, by rejecting His
prophet-messengers. In spite of the message of truth, love, compassion and justice
that they bring, we have a tremendous tendency to reject the message as coming
from God and thus having authority because of the imperfect character, weaknesses
and flaws of such messengers. We also use various other excuses such as language,
place, skin colour, social status, intelligence, mannerism etc. to dismiss these
divine messengers.

There have been instances where people have been sent to their
own native places as prophets sent by God but are rejected by their own people.
By one means or another, the swiftest method of rejection of the prophets has
been to find a pretext, however false or absurd, that dismisses the person so
that his or her message could also be dismissed. The trouble with rejection,
because of personal familiarity with the prophets, is that the prophets are always
somebody's son or daughter or somebody's neighbour. They are chosen from among us,
not transported from another planet.

There are times, some of us behave like the people of Nazareth
and place ourselves between the messengers and the message, doing our utmost to
make the message of God ineffective. Our character and prospects are similar to
those of the Jews, who could not experience great miracles because of unbelief.
Self-sufficiency, self-importance, arrogance, apathy, pride, prejudice, indifference,
etc. separate us from God, and therefore, He hides His face from us; He has limited
His work in us. Our hearts are sometimes as hard and impenetrable as those present
in the time of Christ, because we are ignorant of that which we condemn and oppose.

The Lord Jesus says, "Whoever listens to you listens to me, and
whoever rejects you rejects me; and he who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me",
Luke (10:16). He also says, "Look, I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my call,
and open the door, I will come in to you, and have supper with you, and you, with me",
Revelation (3:20). If we refuse to hear the voice of God and refuse to open the door,
then our Lord Jesus Christ will move on, and we will be left destitute of His presence
and of true riches. Let us assume the counsel given here applies to us today. Let us
seek the counsel of God and harken to those we acknowledge as prophets with a humble
and prayerful spirit, so that the Lord may enlighten our understanding and enable us
to carefully weigh every point of truth that is presented in Scripture and truly
believe in Him.